A Long distance call to Sadiya

My uncle Monty Mama is a businessman. Unlike my other two maternal uncles who are established and are in to medical profession, he somehow was a bit unlucky and so he did what he was best at. At that time, besides owning a press, he had a PCO that offered conference calling facility, which was right near the Amolapotty Bus stand, just across the road. It was doing quite well then and during my vacation, most of the days, I had to fill in. Of course, I would be handsomely paid for my services and yes, a number of girls from Government Girls Higher Secondary School would hang around there for the majestic Alu -chat, Misal chana and Pakodis. Well, I am slightly deviating from the incident. 

The Lady arrives 

Normally, during the peak hours i.e. from 9 in the morning to 8 in the evening, STD calls would cost a lot. So, most of the customers would prefer to call their respective family in the early morning or after 8 in the evening. On that particular day, the machine which controls the call rate and prints out the bill was a bit jumpy and was not working well. After consulting with Taj-da, who was an expert, he told me that there is no such issue. Just switch the machine off for 5mins and once you restart, it will be fine again. I was not an expert and once I did it, it was working well.

Until that lady from Dhemaji who came up to make a call to Sadiya. Back then Sadiya probably had the worst BSNL service and to reach a number, one had to continuously dial at least for one hour. She must have tried for 10mins, when she got connected. The Beep in the machine meant that everything was perfectly ok. Now the pulse at which the machine calculates the overall cost is something that comes in built and and we have nothing to do with. Although, some PCO owners, in order to increase the profit margin are known to do some minor tweaking. However on that day, within a span of 60 seconds, her call rate was increasing at insane speed. “Tumaar Bhaal” “ Moi Dibrugarh paluhi” “ Bhaat Khuwa Naai” “ godhulike Paamgoi” – just in these 4 lines, the bill showing at the overhead display was Rs 45.60. By the time, she had disengaged, it was Rs 50.00. Wow it was a big amount then. 

After looking at the bill, the lady in Mekhela Sador started something like how is this possible? You have manipulated the machine. I am never going to pay that money and all that. I too was finding it tough to explain her. Then something came up in my mind. I told her “Heri nohoi Sadiya loi phoneor wireor kidal Bramhaputra khon paar hoi jaabo laage nohoi, taaku tole tole, heykarone pulse rate tu olop besi…Wireless koriboi pora naai je. Aapuni jody biswas nokhore, rasstar hipare Hegun Masteoror PCO tu asse. Taku hudi sabo pare”. I gambled by mentioning Hegun master and yes, he was my nemesis and the competitor. 

By the time, I had finished these lines, a crisp Rs.50 note was lying on the table and the lady had vanished. From that day onwards, I made it a point to refuse customers who came down to make calls to Sadiya.